This is our exhibition entitled playing cowboy. And this exhibition really examines
the role that the performing in visual arts played in crafting our ideas of what
a cowboy is during this period from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth
centuries really. And this exhibition focuses on the idea
that Cowboys were primarily white these self-reliant independent men with high
moral standards and who carried six irons on their hips when in reality up to
a third of cowboys who were working at the time period were either African-American
or Mexican some Native Americans but it was
a very small proportion and then this exhibition really looks at how Buffalo Bill
helped craft this identity as well as famous artist of the time like Frederick
Rimington and Charles Marion Russell. William Buffalo Bill Cody was the progenitor
of what we come to know as the Wild West show that eventually influenced things
like the Western films on ARAA and he was this character who was
a great showman he developed
a show that traveled the cut throughout the country and even the world promoting
this idea of what was the American West.
Really. And he was such
a great showman he realized that film was the next big thing in the public
entertainment and so he was an early adapter of film technology he even allowed
Thomas Edison studios of film Home reenacting his glory days as
a scout for the U.S.
Army. When my favorite things in the exhibition is
a small group of posters that are related to the outlaw Jesse James and these
posters are basically promoting
a. Theatrical production that was written at shortly after his death the story sort
of lionized his behavior they treated him as
a Robin Hood type figure within the first season the title changed over to James H.
WALLACE The bandit King that was the name of the lead actor and the producer of the
show because we believe that northern audiences didn't like the idea of turning
this villain who was a Confederate sympathizer and
a confederate guerilla warrior into
a hero character and what's really extraordinary is that over museum has the
largest collection of posters related to the specific production.
In addition to cowboys the exhibition focuses on portrayals of Native Americans in
the latter part of the one nine hundred and early part of the twentieth centuries.
These are by no means sympathetic portrayals of Native Americans they're mostly
stereotypical and based on racist ideas of the times one of the prime examples of
a commercialized portrayal of a Native American is
a cigar store figure we're all familiar with these the cigar store figure is kind
of woven into the D.N.A.
Of Schiller museum Ark founder Electra having Myra Webb the first piece of folk art
that she purchased was a cigar store figure of a maiden that she bought from
a gas station in Connecticut and when she brought it home to show her mother her
mother who was
a collector of famous impressionist paintings asked her what have you done and
Electra replied that she had bought art.
One of the jewels of the exhibition are
a trio of transparent paintings that were done an eight hundred fifty of Native
American. Chieftains and figures and these are important because they were an early
form of public entertainment they were painted on
a trans Lucent semi translucent fabric and then oiled and then they were stretched
over
a frame and back lit by candles so they were displayed in these dark tents where
they would have an orator come in and give the stories in the histories of these
important Native American figures these are the only ones known to survive their
extraordinary We have seven in total three of the of the best are on display today
they include people like Paul Houghton who is the father of Pocahontas Tecumseh and
O.C.
Oh all very important figures in the history of Native American cultures. It was
cultural appropriation it was the perfect form of edutainment people would come
from far and wide to see these displays they would take what little disposable cash
they had and they would you know buy tickets and then they were given this view of
history from the white perspective where they were saying you know will harden was
the father of Pocahontas and then they would go into Pocahontas
a story and it was all told from the white perspective.
This exhibition approaches these very difficult topics of race head on we wanted to
include objects from our collection that were historical representations and
present them in the story as part of this history but we also want people to know
that it's important for cultural institutions today to address subjects such as
racism and the mistreatment of people and we do that through these artifacts that
are sometimes difficult to look at we're not
a political institution and really when we approach
a exhibition like this we do it from the standpoint of. Reporting history. All the
tools and information for the audience to. Conclusions that people.
Will. Learn something about. Makes
them reflect upon their own lives today.